


(my love, my love, my love) she keeps me warm

by twelvemorestopsandhome



Category: The White Queen - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-17
Updated: 2013-10-17
Packaged: 2017-12-29 17:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1007890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelvemorestopsandhome/pseuds/twelvemorestopsandhome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anne helps Richard through his insomnia</p>
            </blockquote>





	(my love, my love, my love) she keeps me warm

**Author's Note:**

> Finally filling this prompt!

As an infant, Richard Plantagenet would sleep silently and for hours. His mother would often press her ear to her sleeping son’s back to ensure he had not been taken in his sleep. As he grew and raced to keep up with his brothers, the daily excitement of the world around him meant by the time night came he would, more times than not, be asleep before his mother even came to wish him goodnight.

Many things changed after the Battle of Wakefield, when Richard realised he would never see his father or eldest brother again, when suddenly and with an uncertainty the eight-year-old Richard could never understand, he was whisked to the continent where he found himself too frightened to sleep. Weeks past with him waking earlier and earlier until the young Richard found himself unable to sleep at all. He never called out or made a fuss, he simply lay in bed.

By the time he arrives at Middleham, the home of his cousin, the Earl of Warwick, any semblance of beneficial sleep is long gone from his routine. He feels safe here which after years of uncertainty and assumed threats, that is something he truly cherishes. His training is intensive and sleep would be welcome respite. However, he finds himself wandering the castle by night like a ghost.

He realises he’s not alone a split second before she speaks.

“Oh Richard, it’s only you” Anne exhales dramatically, standing in her nightgown at the door of the kitchen. It’s not a part of the castle either of them frequent during the day but the heat from the stove (and the plentiful supply of food in the pantry) is a powerful draw.

“It’s only me” he repeats with a smile. He likes Anne. She’s fun to play with when time and his training allows and he gets the impression that she is looking out for him even if he is the older or the two.

“Why are you not sleeping?’ she asks, jumping up on the bench directly across from him.

“Do you miss your mother?” she asks before he has the chance to answer “It’s alright if you do, I’d miss my mother if I were apart from her.”

He nods then. There’s no need to pretend of hide in front of Anne. He trusts her. She cares.

“And my brothers.” he whispers.

“I don’t ever want to be apart from Izzy” Anne says breathlessly as if the thought itself causes her pain “although I do not think she likes me much.”

Richard knows what it’s like to feel like an annoyance to your sibling but while Anne may be a little _eager_ in all parts of her life, he can’t imagine anyone not wanting her around.

“I can stay with you if you like.” she says confidently, not at all like the little girl that she is. “let me fetch some playing cards.”

He clearly doesn’t have an choice in this but even if he did, he would wish her to stay.

“Thank you, Anne” he says simply, already considering what treat they could sneak from the pantry to share.

“You’re welcome, Richard” she smiles broadly and scampers out the door.

*

It’s so late that it’s almost morning when they find each other in the courtyard. It is not proper to ask a lady about her nightly habits so he does not inquire as to why she is up at this early hour but Anne, being as open as he remembers her, offers the information freely.

“I’m simply too excited to sleep. What a wonderful day. I shall never forget this day as long as I live.” she swoons.

The coronation of the queen had been an spectacular affair and despite the lord Warwick’s wariness of the queen and her family, it would seem that the youngest Neville had fallen under the queen’s charms.

“It’s nice to see you again, your family is very dear to me.” Richard says earnestly, surprised at his own admission.

Anne blushes furiously at his words and he thinks perhaps she even gives a little squeak.

She is very still for a moment, looking at him like she used to do when they were children, wide-eyed and without shame.

“Would you like to hear a story?” she asks suddenly, with her eyes so wide and shining Richard could believe that they are children once again.

“I would like that.” he agrees with a startled laugh.

“Izzy tells it better but I’ll try.” and has they round the corner back toward the castle, she launches into a story Richard knows well but he doesn’t once interrupt or correct her.

_the bad queen, the sleeping king and the prince of ice._

_*_

Sleep still doesn’t come easily but marriage finds Richard eager to be abed. They spend hours there both at night and in the daylight hours. Richard discovers Anne requires very little sleep and so many nights he finds himself being read to by his enthusiastic wife who has no shyness in jumping atop the bed to dramatise a particular passage if she feels the scene requires it.

He laughs and reaches up to pull her back down to him. They are both quiet then, and with Anne’s head resting on his chest, his inability to sleep is a blessing when it means he gets to lay awake to enjoy this closeness. Anne squirms and rubs her eyes and he knows she is struggling to stay awake.

“Sleep, love” he whispers “I’ll be here when you awake”

“And I’ll be right here” she whispers, her voice low and soothing and squeezes his hip.

*

Pregnancy drains Anne’s energy. Despite her active mind and spirit, her body insists on rest and even when she insists she will simply lie down and that he should join her, sooner or later she drifts off to sleep. Like before, the warmth of her body pressed to his has the potential to send him off to sleep but the swell of her stomach keeps him awake with worry and love. He cannot talk to his sleeping wife so he talks to his unborn child instead. Tells him or her about the world and families they are to be born into. Of what came before them and what he wishes will come after.

By the time her informal confinement comes around, Richard can’t imagine spending any less time with his wife but also laments the loss of the company of their unborn child.

“You may come to me whenever you wish.” Anne kisses him tenderly. “No-one will stop you.”

“I’ll miss you.” he whines and he knows he sounds like a little boy. “both of you.”

“We’ll be right here.” Anne laughs gesturing the the wing of the estate behind her.

*

He finds a bundle of books and letters on the desk in their study later that evening.

_We hope you will not feel too alone during this time, my love_

_I hope these books will keep you good company until both and I and our child are returned to you._

His brothers would laugh at him to discover he has no-one to keep his nights company. That may be the way of things in Westminster but Richard would never dishonour Anne in such a manner, has no desire to.

So instead he reads. Many of these books and epics have been in the castle library since before they were born and he has long since forgotten flashbacks of lady-in-waiting reading to all of Warwick’s wards and children of a night long ago.

It is still both strange and natural that he should be here now. In the place he has always called home in one capacity or another. To be here as the lord of the castle, as the husband of the daughter of the once most powerful man in England. That is how others view this situation, he knows. Women are refereed to by their relationship to men and his Anne has gone from the kingmaker’s daughter to the Duchess of Gloucester (with an unfortunate detour in between) but she has always been Anne to him, still calls herself Anne Neville and it gives him a shot of pride and excitement to know their child will be not only the result of love and mutual adoration but of two great families.

It also astounds him still how the mere thought of her can soothe him. Just knowing she is near fills him with the peace to achieve a sort of waking rest as he turns the page of the Neville family history.

*

He believes for a few nights that he could sleep like this, with his son nestled between him and Anne, but he does not. How can he sleep when at any moment this little boy might need him?

*

She looks as though she is asleep but he knows she is not. He can’t feel her presence and he gets no comfort from her resting form. She’s never going to awake from this sleep.

He is certain that were he able to sleep tonight, he would also never wake.


End file.
